If you’re not measuring it, it doesn’t matter. And if you’re doing any sort of digital marketing, including content marketing, you’d better be measuring how well that marketing is working.

Your analytics data can, of course, tell you a great deal about the health of your digital marketing activity. But only if you’re reading it regularly. Here are some things to look for.

The Basics

The basic raw numbers of your analytics data aren’t likely to deliver epiphanies by the truckload. Yes, your page views, session length, open rates and CTRs are all important, but they aren’t necessarily going to give you much actionable intelligence. This is especially true if you’re looking at the information as a snapshot.

You’re far more likely to gain insights by watching these fundamental data points over time. That’s how you’ll see patterns develop that can lead you toward amplifying the digital marketing you’re doing well, and improving (or perhaps sidelining) areas where performance is lacking.

Deeper Analysis

From those basic indicators, you’ll want to look a little deeper. For example, rather than simply looking at aggregate data for pages per session on your website, look at that same metric broken down by traffic source.

If you can identify a source from which you are seeing greater engagement (based on the number of pages viewed per session, in this example), you can increase the efforts you make to attract traffic via that source.

You can also work to “bottle the magic” and recreate similar results from other sources whose audiences might share qualities with the sources that are performing well.

Connecting the Dots

Finally, you’ll want to find ways to correlate your activities across various channels. How does social media activity affect website traffic? What about your regularly scheduled newsletter? Chances are it provides a bump in traffic, but is that traffic engaged? And are visitors moving further along the path from visitor to prospect to client?

This is the kind of information that can help you push toward consistent incremental improvements in your digital marketing effectiveness.

Since 1996, Andrew Schulkind has asked clients one simple question: what does digital marketing success look like, and how can marketing progress be measured? A veteran content marketer, web developer, and digital strategist, Andrew founded Andigo New Media to help firms encourage profitable engagement with their audience. He holds a degree in Philosophy from Bucknell University in one hand and, frequently, a glass of scotch in the other.